Part of Highway 1 to be dedicated to fallen Santa Cruz CHP officer

RIO DEL MAR - Richard Hoover was 6 years old when his father became the first California Highway Patrol officer to be killed in the line of duty in Santa Cruz County.

It was 1934. Donald Albert Hoover was riding home on his department-issue motorcycle when a car turned in front of him near Slaughterhouse Curve - or what is now Soquel Drive near Commercial Way.

In his honor, the CHP plans to dedicate a portion of Highway 1 near Soquel Drive in 2013.

To celebrate, CHP officers on Tuesday visited 84-year-old Richard Hoover to give him a commemorative sign in memory of his father.

"It's just a real honor to be able to do that so that we don't forget what these officers have done," said CHP Capt. Matt Olson.

Donald Hoover is one of three CHP officers who have died on duty in Santa Cruz County.

Since the agency formed in 1929, 220 CHP officers have been killed on duty in the state.

Since Donald Hoover's death, officers said they took Richard in as part of the CHP family. Because Richard recently was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer, Tuesday's event at his Rio del Mar home gave officers the opportunity to show him the sign and express their ongoing support.

"He's probably old enough to be my grandfather," CHP officer Sarah Jackson said at Richard Hoover's bedside. "But when I see him, I think of my children. I always think in the back of my mind that if something should happen to me, the CHP family would check in on my kids."

Because of the brain cancer, Richard cannot talk, but in an interview in August, he said he remembered being told of his father's untimely death. His father was 31.

"I remember the news, when they told me he had died in a crash," Hoover said. "And I remember the big, beautiful, wonderful funeral that they gave him. There were several officers there in uniforms with their motorcycles. They said there was a procession out at the grave site that was three-quarters of a mile long, the most ever done at the time."

Richard's daughter, Diana Edwards, has spent the past few weeks with her father, coming from her home in Missouri to help care for him.

At the ceremony Tuesday, she said she appreciated the gesture of the highway sign and the CHP's assistance through the years.

"The whole highway patrol has adopted my dad." Edwards said. By showing up at Christmas parties and other events to check up on him, she said, "They've been a real support."

Also, she added, "You don't get your name on the highway too often."

The CHP started a push in 2010 to name part of Highway 1 after Donald Hoover. The Legislature is expected to make it official in September, Olson said.